Activists launch drum line challenge

SYDNEY- BASED animal activists have launched legal action to demand shark drum lines be removed from 85 popular beaches north of Gladstone including those in the Townsville/ Magnetic Island area.

The action would place swimmers at greater risk of attacks and abolish the shark control program on the Great Barrier Reef.

North Queensland civic leaders and surf lifesavers slammed the legal challenge.

“We’ve had no fatal shark attacks on any of those beaches since drum lines were introduced in the 1960s,’’ Surf Life Saving Queensland’s northern manager Rob Davidson said.

“Why change now? Our job is to keep swimmers safe and if that means keeping the drum lines, and preventing loss of life or limb, I’m all for it.”

Tiger sharks, bull sharks, hammerheads, whalers and great whites were among 531 sharks caught off the Queensland coast last year, including a monster 4.1m tiger shark at Ellis Beach north of Cairns.

Humane Society International ( HSI) filed legal action in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal against the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority ( GBRMPA) with the first conference held in Sydney yesterday. The appeal, led by lawyers from the Environmental Defenders Office NSW, for a review of GBRMPA’s shark control program was scheduled to be heard before January.

HSI campaign head Nicola Beynon said lethal shark control did not reduce the “already very low risk of shark attack”.

“We think they ( drum lines) are more about protecting politicians than they are about protecting swimmers,’’ she said. “Our key concern is the impact on the Great Barrier Reef of culling sharks and what it does to reef ecology.”

GBRMPA’s recent decision to renew the permit for 173 drum lines in the marine park for another 10 years had opened the process up to legal action, she said.

The $ 3 million- a- year shark control program includes 27 beaches in Cairns as well as Townsville/ Magnetic Island, Mackay, Capricorn Coast and Gladstone and is operated by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. HUMANS would struggle to survive without plastic, with an expert urging Australians to rethink plans to # BanTheBag. Sustainable plastics expert Dr John Williams says despite calls to get rid of plastic bags and containers, plastic is here to stay. “We would literally struggle to survive without plastics,” he said. An estimated 20,700 tonnes of plastic end up in Australian landfills every year and Dr Williams is optimistic consumers will embrace new options. His company is due to begin production of a recyclable, biodegradable and non- toxic plastic. Dr Williams will also speak at the Australasian Waste and Recycling Expo, which starts in Melbourne today.